


Thanks (for making me harder)

by Hepzheba



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Human, Angst, Background Scisaac, Derek/Erica brotp, Emotional Manipulation, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Misunderstandings, brief Stiles/Heather, brief Stiles/Malia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-22
Updated: 2014-03-22
Packaged: 2018-01-16 15:21:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1352281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hepzheba/pseuds/Hepzheba
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Derek isn't at college to make friends, he's there to study. And it's because of studying that he walks into the wrong dorm room and meets Stiles. And from there it just escalates.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Thanks (for making me harder)

**Author's Note:**

> This was first posted on my tumblr page in eleven parts. Since then I've made some adjustments (I added some things, but mostly it's the same) and [Beth](http://foreverblue-navy.tumblr.com/) made sure there's not too many spelling and grammar mistakes (if you see any, please let me know).
> 
> See end notes for warnings.

The fact that Derek is a few years older than the other freshmen doesn’t mean he is more relaxed than them. While most of them are trying to get the whole college experience with partying every night and sleeping around, Derek is aiming for top grades and hopefully a job offer when college is over. His classmates think he’s weird, he knows that, he sees them looking at him and they sometimes groan out loud when he raises his hand to ask the professor a question. But Derek’s not in college to make friends, he’s there to study so he doesn’t really care.

His assigned roommate Isaac has tried to get Derek to join him at some party or something, but Derek always declines because Derek has more important things to worry about – like how the great plague affected London economically. He’s not really looking where he’s going – he knows his way around the dorm house well enough after living there for a little over a month. The people he meets – on their way to a party, no doubt, it is, after all, a Friday night – get out of his way and he guesses there should be some perks to being a few years older and broader around the chest area than most other students.

He hears the loud music before he’s even opened the door to his and Isaac’s room – some girl singing about working harder and being stronger and Isaac screaming along a bit off-key – and sighs heavily as he pushes the door opened. He drops his bag onto the chair just by the side of the door. The bag doesn’t end up on the chair though and Derek’s eyes snap down to it on the floor. Why would Isaac move the chair? He looks up from the floor and his eyes widens.

The location of the two beds along the walls to the sides is identical to that of his and Isaac’s beds, but that’s where the similarity ends. Unlike Derek and Isaac’s beds these beds are not made; one of them has sheets with pink roses and the other with Batman’s logo.

If the bed wouldn’t give away the fact that Derek was indeed in the wrong room, the person who stands between the beds with his back to Derek is a huge giveaway because that is _not_ Isaac. The hair is darker and shorter; it stands up on the top of his head and is shorter in the back and on the sides. The shoulders are broad and the back muscled – yes, Derek can see this very clearly thanks to the _lack of clothing!_ – and leading down to a slim waist. The buttocks are – sadly – covered in a pair of tight, blue briefs, but they are round and look firm and would probably fit perfectly in Derek’s hands. The legs are muscled and covered in fine hairs. Derek’s eyes are about to travel up the thighs to the ass again when the person turns around and he comes face to face with a quite impressive crotch covered in the Superman S instead. His eyes snap up to the person’s face – which is really not better because the person is _gorgeous_! Long lashes frame Bambi brown eyes and there a few moles on the cheeks. The cute upturned nose wrinkles and the guy’s mouth has fallen opened but no words come out (the last words might have been “So thanks for making me a fighter”). He’s holding a hairbrush that obviously has been used as a microphone in absence of the real deal.

Derek stares and the guy stares back, mouth still opened. The girl still sings about learning faster and getting thicker skin and being a fighter and Derek can admit that the song is quite catching.

“Hello?” the guy says at last and his voice when he talks is a bit deeper than Derek expected. “Can I help you?”

Derek wants to offer to help the guy out of the last of his clothes, but that might be what his sister Laura calls coming on too strong. So Derek stays quiet instead, which really doesn’t seem to help either if the guy’s frowning is anything to go by.

“Are you lost?” the guy asks.

“This is my room,” Derek says and the tip of his ears burn because this _obviously_ isn’t his room. The guy looks confused for a moment.

“Are you high? Because dude, I’m pretty sure this is my and Scott’s room.”

“I mean,” Derek says, “I thought this was my room. What floor am I on?”

“Fourth,” the guy answers and Derek winces – did he actually walk up an extra set of stairs? The guy seems to relax a bit, he puts down the hairbrush on his desk and lowers the music still blaring from his computer. He’s still in nothing but a pair of Superman underwear though and Derek can’t help but watch the veins in the guy’s muscled forearms and the thick, dark happy trail leading down to that big yellow S on his briefs.

“I live on the third floor,” Derek explains and kind of wonders why he’s still in the room.

“It’s easy to go into the wrong room. I once ended up in the wrong class in high school. I was there for two months before I realized that it was wrong. I thought the teacher just focused very much on the authors in the history instead of, you know, the whole history. It was when she moved on to talk about grammar that I realized that it wasn’t a history class at all.”

Derek can’t help but smile slightly at the story and the guy smiles back, making Derek’s knees a little bit weak.

“Anyway, I’m preparing for the party at Lydia’s.”

And that’s Derek’s clue to leave.

“Sorry for barging in on you-” he waves his hand around “-preparing.”

“No worries. See you at the party?”

“Definitely,” Derek says and the guy smiles as Derek backs out of the room.

“Isaac, we’re going to a party,” he announces when he opens the door to his own room.

 

Derek doesn’t see The Guy when he and Isaac arrive at the party at Lydia Martin’s house.

“Oh, my god,” Isaac grumbles, “does this guy have three dicks or what?”

“Isaac!” Derek hisses and blushes furiously. Isaac just hands him a plastic cup of beer that he seems to have conjured out of nowhere. Or maybe went over to the keg and retrieved it while Derek was busy scanning the living room for that brown hair and pale face.

Isaac had been uncharacteristically against the idea of going to the party when Derek announced that they were going. He claimed he needed to study, which would have been a first for him. It wasn’t until Derek promised he’d help Isaac tomorrow that Isaac finally relented and agreed to come with Derek (and show Derek where Lydia’s house was because Derek was probably the only student who’d never been there).

“Well, well, well,” someone suddenly says behind them and Derek turns around to see a blonde girl with bright red, smirking lips eyeing him from top to bottom. ”Look, what the cat dragged here.”

Derek almost gapes at her – how dare she? The girl frowns at him then and then sighs heavily.

“You have no idea who I am, do you?”

“Should I?” Derek asks her, admittedly a bit defensively.

“We’ve been sitting next to each other for a month!” she exclaims, waving her clawed hands in his general direction. “Oh, my god!”

“I’m sorry?” Derek tries to remember her and there might have been a blonde girl next to him in class, she had always opinions about the treatment of women it seemed (not that Derek could disagree with her points).

“You should be,” she says and flicks a blonde lock of hair over her shoulder. “Come on, let’s get a drink.”

She links her arm under Derek’s and steers him to the keg. Derek gives Isaac a confused look but Isaac only gives him thumbs up, as if the point of Derek going to the party was to score with a blonde bombshell.

“I’m not really interested in girls,” Derek tells the girl – Erica, he remembers her name being – when she hands him a shot glass filled with something artificially green.

“Duh,” she says and downs the shot in one go. She nods at him to do the same and he doesn’t really have a choice. It burns down his throat and he coughs.

“Such a baby,” Erica rolls her eyes and refills their glasses. “I know you’re not interested in me. You haven’t even noticed that I wear a very tight, small dress and I have a huge rack.”

Derek’s eyes flick down to said rack and her breast is basically trying to escape the small, black dress she’s wearing. He blushes and looks away.

“All the other guys can barely keep their eyes off,” Erica says and drowns the second shot, motioning for Derek to do the same. “But you didn’t even notice that I even have breast before I pointed it out.”

Derek winces at the alcohol and then winces some more when Erica refills his glass yet again. He’s starting to feel a bit light-headed and thinks maybe he shouldn’t be drinking.

“I would’ve thought you were asexual because you haven’t stared at Danny’s ass in class even once. Everyone stares at Danny’s ass,” she tells Derek when he gives her a confused look. He doesn’t even know who this Danny character is. “So yeah, I’d go for asexual. Except…” she looks a bit like the cat that got the canary. If the canary was Derek, that is. “You’re here, which means something – or more likely, some _one_ – must’ve spiked your interest, because you’re not here to make friends. So who is he?”

Erica laughs delightfully when the tip of Derek’s ears burn in that telling way that means they’re the kind of red usually reserved for stop signs.

“It’s no one,” he says and she arches a perfect eyebrow at him. “I don’t even know his name.”

And then he ends up telling Erica the whole thing about walking into the wrong dorm room and the really hot guy dancing around in his underwear in the room that was _clearly not Derek’s_. Erica seems to find Derek’s embarrassment hilarious. She also keeps refilling his shot glass and Derek quite quickly loses track of how many he’s had when he suddenly spots familiar disheveled brown hair. The brown eyes underneath the hair widen slightly in recognition and then he – The Guy – saunters up to them.

“Batman!” Erica squeals and Derek thinks she’s drunker than he’d earlier thought. The guy is dressed in a plaid and he does have a black t shirt with the Batman logo under it, but he’s clearly not Batman. Erica doesn’t seem to notice – she throws her hand around his neck and kisses him soundly on the cheek, leaving a red lip print on it.

“Hey there, Catwoman,” the guy says easily and smiles at Derek as Erica steps back from him. “Who’s your friend?” He gives Derek a once over and his brown eyes burn heatedly, making Derek blush furiously.

“Stiles, this is Derek. Derek, this is Stiles.” Erica turns to Stiles (what kind of name is Stiles?), “Sadly, Derek’s taken already. We’re hanging around waiting for his prince charming to arrive.”

“Oh.” Stiles looks a bit disappointed.

Derek opens his mouth to tell Stiles that _he_ is Derek’s prince charming, but no words come out. Instead he throws up all over Stiles’ shoes.

Fuck Derek’s life.

 

After throwing up all over Stiles’ shoes Derek does the only thing any sane person would do – he bolts. He’s not proud over it, but he really doesn’t think there’s anything else he can do at this point. He’s out of the house when Erica calls after him. He doesn’t stop walking until there’s a hand on his arm. She’s surprisingly quick despite her high heels.

“Derek…” Erica says but Derek turns away from her and throws up right there on the sidewalk. Erica pats his back and if anyone asks about the tears in his eyes it’s because throwing up is not a nice experience, okay?

“Oh, sweetie,” Erica says and rubs his back. It doesn’t really help but it feels nice. “Come on, let’s get you home.”

When they get back to Derek’s room, Derek throws up some more (in the toilet, this time, thankfully) before Erica forces him to drink some water and then he passes out on his bed.

 

When Derek wakes up the next day he has a headache, his throat hurts and his mouth tastes as if something died in there. He manages to get to the bathroom to gulp down two glasses of water. Isaac’s not in, which isn’t really that surprising, Isaac has a habit of staying at other people’s places when he’s been partying. He wonders if Stiles is the same, if Stiles went home with someone last night. Just because Isaac isn’t there doesn’t mean his bed is empty though. Erica is tucked in under the covers, only her blonde hair sticking up in all directions. She blinks tiredly at him and smiles softly.

“You feeling alright?” she asks.

“No.”

Erica rolls her eyes and gets out of the bed. She’s only wearing a pair of lace panties and Derek stares intently at the floor. She rolls her eyes as she picks up her purse from the desk and rummages around it before she hands him two pills.

“Two?” Derek asks. “Isn’t it bad to-?”

“Two pills won’t make you a drug addict, Derek,” Erica snaps and maybe she’s not feeling as well as Derek first thought; she takes two pills for herself as well. “Let’s sleep a few more hours and then go out for breakfast. I know just the place.”

 

They do just that and when Derek wakes up the next time he feels slightly better. After his shower he feels almost human. Erica borrows a pair of Isaac’s sweatpants and a hoodie from the same wardrobe, because Derek’s apparently too broad for her, and she tells him to “shut up, I’m hung-over and there’s no way I’m dressing in last nights’ dress,” even if Derek hadn’t said anything. Even if Erica’s dressed in loose-fitted clothes, she looks great. Derek’s dressed in jeans and a Henley but he still feels like a hobo next to her. His eyes feel itchy because he slept with his contacts so instead he grabs his glasses and puts them on.

“Oh, my god, of course you have hipster glasses!” Erica laughs at him.

“Hipster?” Derek asks. “I’ve had these glasses for five-six years.”

Erica laughs even more at that, but Derek has no idea why. She grabs his hand and steers him towards one of the dinners just outside campus. The place is quite busy, the noise making Derek’s head hurt somewhat, and Derek doubts they’ll find an empty table. Erica doesn’t seem too concerned though, she takes Derek’s hand and drags him through the place until they’re at a table with three other people. Erica pushes Derek down on the seat next to the guy in a beanie before Derek has time to realize that it is in fact Stiles. Stiles has his head on his arms on the table and could very well be sleeping.

“I’ll buy us breakfast,” Erica says and leaves. Derek sits awkwardly next to the gorgeous guy whose shoes he ruined yesterday and the two gorgeous girls in front of him. One of them – a red head – is tapping away at her phone and doesn’t seem to care about him at all, but the other – dark haired and dark eyed – gives him a small, dimpled smile.

“I’m Allison,” she says.

“Derek,” Derek answers.

Allison rolls her eyes and nudges at her friend who sighs and raises her eyes – they’re an interesting shade of green, Derek notices.

“I’m Lydia,” she says and Derek realizes that she Lydia Martin, the girl whose floors he threw up all over yesterday. He hopes she doesn’t know it was him, because she looks like she could skin him if she wanted to.

“Nice to meet you.”

“Stiles,” Lydia says and obviously kicks Stiles under the table because he startles and sits up. “Say hello to Erica’s latest conquest.”

A number of emotions, none of which Derek can understand, cross Stiles’ face before he schools it into an easy smile.

“We’ve met,” Stiles says and Derek ducks his head to stare at the table.

“I’m sorry for- you know,” he says, gesturing awkwardly towards the floor and Stiles’ shoes.

“No worries, dude. It has happened to all of us, even Lydia once, but we’re not talking about that,” he hurriedly adds after what probably is another hard kick from Lydia under the table. “So you and Erica, huh? I was under the impression that you were waiting for someone else last night.”

“Yeah, I was,” Derek says and tries to gather enough courage to say that he was waiting for Stiles, but Erica comes up to his side with a tray filled with greasy fast food and what looks like black coffee and Derek might fall a bit in love with her. She pushes him to move closer to Stiles on the seat as she sits down next to him, distributing the food between them. The other three has obviously already eaten, but Erica has brought a second cup of coffee for Stiles which he almost sticks his nose into as he breathes in with closed eyes.

“You’re the best, Catwoman.”

Erica grins at him.

“So I take it introductions have been made?” she asks. “Where’s the puppy?”

Derek frowns and Stiles looks a bit nauseated.

“He met a guy last night. I had to stay at Lydia’s because apparently he needed the room.” He makes a face.

“Good for him,” Erica says. “Who was the lucky guy?”

“I don’t know his name, curly hair, big, blue eyes. Could make Scott run for his money on the puppy dog look.”

“Isaac?” Derek asks, because it does sound like his roommate.

“No, Scott,” Stiles says.

“No, the guy sounds like Isaac, my roommate.”

Stiles nods, “if so, I guess we’ll see each other a lot in the future.”

Derek thinks Stiles looks slightly displeased by this fact.

“And also if you’re dating Erica.”

“We’re not dating,” Erica and Derek say at the same time and Stiles looks confusedly between the two of them.

“So you just…?” Stiles makes a complicated movement with his hands that Derek thinks meant had sex.

“No, she didn’t- I didn’t- I’m not-”

Erica rolls her eyes and shushes at him and Derek thankfully snaps his mouth shut. Stiles gives him a peculiar look.

“As you know, Derek wasn’t feeling that well last night so I helped him home and then slept at his place. Didn’t even get a kiss on the cheek for my trouble.”

Derek turns to apologize to Erica and she smiles at him.

“Don’t worry, darling,” she pats his knee. “Derek has the hots for someone else and I am going to help him capture this person.”

“Oh,” Stiles says and scrubs at the back of his neck.

Derek bites down on his muffin and tries to come up with how to ask Stiles out on a date, but before he’s gathered enough courage Stiles and Lydia leave to go study. Derek doesn’t watch Stiles’ ass when he walks away.

He doesn’t see Erica giving him a calculating look.

 

Isaac is, actually, dating Stiles’ friend Scott. Because of Isaac’s earlier acquaintances Derek thought the thing with Scott would have been a one-time thing, but they’re making gooey eyes at each other whenever Derek sees them, which only tends to remind Derek how lonely he himself is.

Erica seems to think that as she’s seen Derek at his worst (i.e. drunk and throwing up) they’re now BFFs. Derek finds he doesn’t really mind. Erica is smart and even if she talks a bit too much during their study sessions in the library, she’s funny to hang out with and she laughs at Derek’s dry jokes. Erica also seems to think it’s her mission in life – or at least in college – to get Derek to leave his room for other things than studying and going to class. She forces him to go get coffee at the coffee shop just outside campus and Derek has to spend an hour and a half trying and failing to not look at Stiles’ mouth, hands and whole, gorgeous being. Stiles, it sadly turns out, is not only gorgeous, but also funny with a dry sense of humor that mirrors Derek’s quite well, and he’s scarily smart when he wants to.

“Let me guess, you’re the middle child, right?” he asks Derek an hour into their conversation. Derek stares at him, unable to comprehend how Stiles knew this. “Two sisters, right?”

“How did you-?”

“He’s brilliant, that’s how!” Scott hugs Stiles with one arm and kisses his forehead. Derek and Isaac exchange an amused and slightly terrified look. Apparently Stiles and Scott grew up together and Erica came along in high school.

“I’m an only child myself,” Stiles tells Derek. “Always wanted siblings.”

“They’re the worst,” Derek says and Stiles smiles at him and someone else says something, but Derek’s a bit blinded by Stiles’ sparkling eyes that looks almost amber in the lights of the coffee shop.

 

Derek’s life continues like this. He has to admit, only to himself though, that having friends to hang out with when he gets tired of studying is a bit better than going back to his own, mostly empty dorm room. The downside of hanging out with people is that _other people_ seem to think it’s okay to approach him. He’s gotten asked out on dates twice in the last month and he has – a bit rudely, according to Erica – declined them both.

“You either do something about your prince charming, or you move on,” she tells him sternly. “You can’t just keep doing this to yourself. Have you even talked to him yet?”

“I- we’ve talked,” Derek defends himself and tries to focus on the book in front of him on the table in the library.

Erica arches a doubtful eyebrow at him, clearly not impressed.

“Does he know you like him? Is he even into guys?”

“No, and I don’t know. He seems pretty open-minded. His friend’s gay. Or bi or whatever.”

Erica looks even less impressed.

“You have to do something, Der, you can’t just pine. Someone else will take him if you don’t.”

“I’m… preparing.”

Derek tries to read the text in front of him, but Erica snaps the book shut and holds it out of Derek’s reach when he tries to get it back.

“I’m serious, Derek,” she says and stares at him a bit aggressively, putting the book all the way over by the other side of the table. Derek has to get up to reach it. He stays seated.

“I-”

“Just ask him out, okay?”

Derek grumbles but he guesses Erica does have a point. If he fails he can just move back to his parents’ house. They’d probably be less than thrilled to have him back so soon after almost forcing him away to college, but they’re his parents, they can’t not accept him back in. Laura will probably die from laughing though, but that’s one sister less to laugh at him, so that’s always something.

 

Derek thinks of bringing Stiles flowers and asking him out, but it feels a bit too cliché and what if Stiles will decline? Derek chickens out every time he tries to ask Stiles. They’re rarely alone together and Derek doesn’t want to make a fool out of himself in front of all their friends. A kind of perfect opportunity presents itself on a Tuesday night when Stiles comes knocking on his door.

“Can I crash your place tonight?” he asks when Derek opens the door. “Scott and Isaac are doing something I really don’t want to think about.”

“Sure,” Derek says and lets Stiles in while trying to look casual and not as if his heart is beating so loud his neighbors might hear it. Stiles flops down on Derek’s bed – on Derek’s bed where Derek has been fantasizing about having Stiles while touching himself, oh god, this will be _a disaster_!

“What are you doing?” Stiles asks as Derek sits down in his desk chair.

“Not much, doing some reading,” Derek says and tries so hard to be casual. His back is stiff and he feels as if he’s going to be sick any moment now. “Uh. Would you- We could- Do you want to catch a movie or something?”

Stiles grins at him, “That’d be awesome, man!”

“Now?” Derek asks. “Or some other day, if you’re busy?”

“Dude, I’ve been sexiled, I’m not busy. Have you seen the latest Marvel movie? I was at the premiere but I could totally watch it again.”

Derek smiles hesitantly – oh, my god, he’s going on a date with Stiles!

“That’s fine.”

Stiles wiggles around a bit, trying to pick up his phone from his jeans pocket, which also makes his shirt ride up to show off a pale, toned stomach and a dark and thick line of hair  leading into his boxers that are visible. Derek averts his gaze as Stiles taps on his phone.

“There’s a show starting two hours from now, that’d be perfect, right? We can grab something to eat first.”

Derek nods and kind of dumbly follows Stiles out of the room. Stiles keeps up a running commentary on just about anything the whole time until the movie starts. He asks Derek questions and smiles and seems to genuinely want to know more about Derek.

The whole movie Derek tries to man up the courage to take Stiles’ hand, but when the two hours are up his palms are still sweaty and against his own thighs.

“This was awesome, man!” Stiles exclaims when they’re out of the theatre and start walking back to campus. Derek can’t help but smile at him as Stiles is waving his hands around in excitement. “We should definitely do this again. Maybe we could bring Scott and Isaac?”

“Like a double date?” Derek asks and Stiles startles.

“Well, not really a double date,” Stiles says, “I mean, we’re not dating so it wouldn’t be a double date, but you’re right, it could be awkward hanging out with just the two of them. We could bring Erica too, right?”

“Right.” Derek’s face aches from the forced smile and his heart clench. This was not a date, he thinks. And even if it was, Stiles just made it very clear that he doesn’t want to date Derek.

Derek keeps his face until Stiles says goodnight to him on the third landing before he continues his climb to the fourth floor. His throat hurts when he swallows and his eyes burn and Derek’s very happy that Isaac is already asleep in his bed, not asking any questions to why Derek’s sniffling.

 

Derek doesn’t sulk. No matter what Erica says, he doesn’t.

Okay, maybe a little bit.

Maybe a lot.

Stiles doesn’t treat him differently after their not-date and that makes it harder to get over him because he keeps showing up around the school, offering company and a running commentary on their stupid teachers and fellow students and why Ironman is cooler than Batman. Or if it was the other way around – Derek got distracted by Stiles’ hands during that particular monologue.

“The only way to get over a man is to get under another,” Erica informs him chirpily and Derek wonders why he’s even friends with her.

“I have a friend who could use some company as well,” she says with some kind of evil glint in her eyes. “I think you’d get along just fine.”

Derek decides to ignore the evil glint because it’s not like his life can get any worse, right?

“Is he even gay?” he asks because it would be so typical of Erica to set him up with a straight guy.

“Bi or queer or whatever. I think he’d take basically anything.”

“Well, that’s reassuring.”

“I know, right?” Erica obviously misses his sarcasm. Or maybe she just ignores it.

“I’ll think about it.”

Erica gives him a huge smile because Derek has basically agreed to go on a blind date.

 

It’s a Friday night and Derek hasn’t been invited along to any parties because everyone seems to be busy studying, so Derek does just that. He’s just about to highlight something when the door is flung opened and Isaac stumbles in backwards. Scott is plastered to his front, face into Isaac’s neck and there is quite some groping being done at the back of Scott’s pants. Derek stares at them for a second, before he realizes that it’s fruitless and if he stays in the room he’ll get to watch them remove all their clothing.

Derek flees the room. He considers going to Erica’s room but then realizes she’s finally landed herself a date with that hot quarterback she’s been after since school started. He hesitates for a moment before he climbs the stairs to the fourth floor. He knocks on the door to Stiles and Scott’s room – he hasn’t been there since the first time and he tries to not think about that time ever because his face gets all hot and his pants too tight whenever he does that. (So maybe he thinks about it a bit when he’s alone in bed or the shower, but no one needs to know that.)

There’s some shuffling from the other side of the door and then Stiles opens the door, looking more disheveled than usual; his hair is sticking out in every direction, his shirt is rumpled and his cheeks have a slight flush to them.

“Sorry, were you sleeping?” Derek asks because the other possibility of Stiles being in bed _not sleeping_ does nothing to ease the tightness in Derek’s pants.

“No, not sleeping.”

Stiles seems even more flustered as he throws a quick glance over his shoulder.

“I got sexiled,” Derek says, “but if you’re busy…”

“No, no problem.”

“No problem?!” someone – definitely female – parrots and Stiles winces. It feels like lead settled in Derek’s stomach and he wants nothing more to turn around and walk away. But he also wants to know who Stiles’ _friend_ is. The door is pushed opened and a pretty, dark-blond girl gives Derek an unimpressed stare.

“We were busy,” she states and Stiles winces.

“Malia, he’s been-”

“I heard him,” she says and glares at Stiles. “Now I wonder if you’re going to tell your friend to leave so we can continue,” she gives Stiles’ crotch a not-so-subtle glance and arches an eyebrow at him, ”or should I go?”

Stiles looks startled and stares between them – Derek knows he should leave, but he’s frozen to the ground. Malia huffs and grabs her jacket from the desk chair.

“Malia, wait!” Stiles calls after her but she storms down the corridor without turning back.

Derek winces and tries to come up with something to say.

“I’m sorry-” he begins but Stiles just shushes him and ushers him inside the room.

“Bros before hoes,” he says and Derek doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “Come on, let’s watch a movie.”

The fact that Stiles had been making out (or maybe more) with another person just minutes ago doesn’t seem to faze Stiles at all as he directs Derek to sit on his bed. Derek’s glad it’s not too rumpled or has any suspicious-looking stains on it. Stiles sets up his computer on the desk and sits down next to Derek, seemingly unconcerned by the fact that their sides are plastered together. Derek has a hard time focusing on the movie.

“Is she your girlfriend?” Derek finally gets the courage to ask when they’ve been watching for maybe twenty minutes.

“Who? Scarlett Johansson? I wish.”

Stiles bumps his shoulder against Derek’s and smirks. Derek rolls his eyes.

“No, that girl, Malia?”

“No,” Stiles says and he sounds so unconcerned and Derek’s stomach feels tight with jealousy. “We just hooked up.”

“Sorry for ruining it,” Derek says. Lies.

Stiles bumps his shoulder again and leans his head against Derek’s shoulder in a mock-affectionate gesture. Derek’s stomach twitches.

“I told you, bros before hoes.”

Derek doesn’t know how to feel, on one hand he’s quite glad Stiles is willing to give up sex with a hot girl because of him, but on the other hand he’s kind of devastated that Stiles even wants to have sex with a hot girl. Derek knows Stiles isn’t interested in him, but he still had kind of hoped that Stiles would grow to like him or something – it always happened in movies, didn’t it? The realization that it’ll never be him and Stiles makes him want to curl up in his bed. Instead he sits next to Stiles, the other guy’s head on his shoulder, wishing that it was in a more romantic way.

The next morning he sends Erica a text. _I’ll go on a date with your friend._

 

Derek is a bit anxious about his blind date. What if the guy won’t like him? And what if he does? Derek doesn’t know which one would be worse, the guy never wanting to see him again or the guy wanting to see him again. Derek doesn’t know if he’d even want to see the guy again. He’s still kind of ~~madly in love~~ hung up on Stiles.

“Just see how it goes, if you like each other,” Erica tells him when he voices some of his concerns to her. He still hasn’t told her that his _Prince Charming_ is Stiles but she looks between the two of them sometimes when they’re all hanging out as if she knows so Derek suspects she does. “If you want to get out of there, just send me a text and I’ll call you with an emergency.” She makes quote marks with her red-clawed fingers on the word emergency.

“Thanks,” Derek says and he guesses he means for more than just being prepared to save him from a potentially bad date.

“Seriously though,” Erica continues, “I think you two would fit together. I mean, my friend is probably way better than your prince anyway.” She makes air quotes on the word prince and Derek scowls at her. She only laughs at him.

 

The day of the date he considers blowing it off a multiple times but in the last moment he sighs and leaves his room for the coffee shop. He arrives five minutes late and looks to the corner where Erica said his date would sit by their usual table. He doesn’t find a stranger there, though – the place is taken by Stiles, who seems engrossed in his phone. For a moment Derek’s heart surges because he thinks that maybe Stiles is his secret date, but then he realizes that Stiles is probably just hanging around waiting for some friends or something. Derek hesitates before he makes his way over. Maybe the other guy had already been there, talking to Stiles? Or maybe he, too, was late?

“Hi, Stiles,” Derek says when he’s at the table. Stiles startles and almost drops his phone, but he manages to catch it before it hits the table.

“H-hey Derek! What’s up, man?”

Derek shuffles his feet awkwardly.

“I was told my date would be at this table?”

Stiles looks confused for a second before he pales in something that can only be described as horror, his eyes widen and his mouth falls open.

“Oh, my god, you’re Erica’s friend?” he practically shrieks, making a few of the other patrons turn their heads to see what the noise is about. His reaction to the fact that Derek is his blind date is pretty telling and Derek feels his heart sink, even though he doesn’t even understand himself how he can still have hope.

“This is the worst,” Stiles mutters – it’s directed to the table and Derek’s probably not supposed to hear it, but he does and it hurts.

“I’m sorry, Stiles, I didn’t- If I’d known-”

“I’m not mad at you,” Stiles says, his eyes turned to Derek once again – they’re huge and pleading and looking for something Derek has no idea what it is. “Erica shouldn’t have done this. She _knows_ how I feel- I mean, that there’s- Oh, god, this is so awkward. I’m sorry, Derek. We can still be friends, right? This doesn’t have to come between us? Because I really like spending time with you. Like friends, I mean.”

“We can still be friends,” Derek nods even though he wants to run back home and curl up in his bed because Stiles just rejected him for a second time. Stiles gives him a small smile, hesitant and a bit heartbreaking because he seems to earnest in his desire to still be friends with Derek.

“Well, I should just-” Derek motions for the door and Stiles grabs his hand – Derek wasn’t even aware that he was close enough for Stiles to grab.

“You said we’d be friends. Friends can have coffee together, right?”

Derek hesitates.

“Besides, I need someone to read through my paper and you’re the smartest person I know except for Lydia but she’s mean and would only tell me to rewrite the whole damn thing.”

Derek tries for a smile – it may come out more as a grimace, but he tries at least – and sits down across from Stiles at the table.

“You’re buying me coffee,” he tells Stiles who grins and seems so happy that Derek is still there, still his friend, as if Derek ever was in the position to reject Stiles. He clenches his hands under the table and smiles back at Stiles.

“Go get me coffee and a scone and I’ll read your stupid paper.”

Stiles beams at him and almost trips over his bag to do what Derek asks. Derek bites the inside of his lip hard and pretends that the stinging in his eyes is because of that pain.

 

Derek is mad at Erica and she seems to actually understand because she keeps giving him sorrowful eyes when he sits down next to someone else in their shared classes. She tries to catch his eyes from across the room but he stares intently on the board even though the professor hasn’t begun the lecture yet.

“Did that board kill your parents?” someone asks from his right and he turns to the girl by his side in surprise. She smiles hesitantly at him and he frowns at her. “I’m Jennifer,” she says.

“Derek,” Derek says and wonders if it would be polite to extend his hand to her. She doesn’t so he doesn’t either.

“Fight with the girlfriend?” She nods towards Erica.

“Erica is _not_ my girlfriend,” Derek says with the force people usually use when they’re trying to convince themselves of something. “She’s not even my friend right now.”

“Oh?” Jennifer inquires and draws some stick figures on the paper in front of her. Derek can see it’s already filled with doodles, none of them that good. “I can’t just sit still without doing something, I’d cry out of boredom,” she explains as if Derek had asked something.

“I understand,” Derek says, even though he doesn’t really. Or maybe he does; Stiles seems to be the same, always fiddling with something or playing on his phone.

The class starts and Derek listens intently to the professor, trying and mostly failing to not think of Stiles. Their conversation when Stiles got back with Derek’s coffee had not, in fact, been awkward. Mostly – or more likely exclusively – thanks to Stiles because Stiles could probably make a conversation with a lamppost without it being awkward. Derek likes hanging out with Stiles, he likes it when all of Stiles’ attention is fixed on him, when those whiskey colored eyes fix on him when he says something and how Stiles throws his head back and laughs, his neck long and pale, when Derek tries to be funny. Derek isn’t really funny, he knows that because his sisters always tell him so, but when Stiles laughs at something he’s said, when he’s actually tried to be funny, Derek kind of believes he’s the funniest man alive.

The class ends and Derek realizes he’s missed the most part of it.

“You can copy my notes, if you want to,” the girl from his side – he has to think for a moment before he remembers her name being Jennifer – says, as if she’s been watching him zone out.

“Yeah, I’d appreciate that.” Derek scowls down on his half-assed notes – they’re not even making any sense even when he thought he was actually listening to the professor.

“Do you have time now to – I don’t know, maybe go to the library or something?” Jennifer gets up from her chair and Derek shrugs in an affirmative. He’s almost done packing his stuff when Erica comes up.

“Derek-”

“Don’t,” he tells her. “You’ve done enough.”

“I’m sorry. I thought-”

“What? That we’d skip off into the sunset?”

Erica winces and tries to touch his arm, but Derek pulls away.

“You know there were feelings involved and yet you had to go do this, not thinking-”

“I thought- maybe the two of you could-”

“Well, you thought wrong.” Derek turns to Jennifer, who seems to be watching their exchange with interest. “Come on.”

Jennifer has to run to come up by his side.

“So… that was…”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“She tried to set you up with someone?” Jennifer obviously can’t take no for an answer. Derek knows another person like that. A person that he likes quite a lot. Maybe talking about it with someone who doesn’t really know him or Stiles will make it better? Derek sighs and scrubs his face.

“She tried to set me and another friend up on a blind date. Or well, she did set us up. Only… I kind of like this other friend. A lot. And Erica knew this and- My friend knows too and we’re not- nothing’s going to happen so Erica just made it really awkward.”

“Your friend knows you like her?”

“Him.”

Jennifer looks startled for just a moment before she smiles.

“He knows you like him?”

“Yeah, he- we kind of went on a date once. Before the blind date and he said he wasn’t interested like that and we’ve been friends since then and we’ll keep being friends now.”

Jennifer makes a thoughtful noise and holds the door to the library opened for Derek. He arches a questioning eyebrow at her.

“I don’t think people can be friends when one of them wants more,” she tells him and Derek wants to scream at her that he didn’t ask for her opinion. Only, he kind of did. He doesn’t know what to say though. He thought he and Stiles could still be friends, they managed it that time in the coffee shop.

“What happens when he gets a boyfriend? Or a girlfriend?”

They find a table at the back of the library, away from other people. Derek sighs and scrubs at his eyes.

“See?”

Derek guesses she has a point. He has to distance himself from Stiles, it’s the only way he’ll ever get over him.

“I’ll be your new bestie,” Jennifer smiles and pats his arm, as if Derek’s heart isn’t breaking at the thought of not seeing Stiles as much as he would like.

 

Derek finds his phone almost embarrassingly quick when it buzzes, announcing a new text. His heart beats just a bit faster when he sees that it’s from Stiles. _Hey! Havn’t seen u in a while. We’re going 2 a party tonight. U comin?_

Derek wants to say yes. He wants so badly to reply and say that he’ll come and then he’d finally see Stiles again. He hasn’t seen Stiles in… ten days. Derek misses him. He misses talking to Stiles, discussing things and listening to his, sometimes inappropriate, jokes. He misses Stiles laughing at Derek’s dry jokes, his head thrown back and his eyes gleaming.

“You coming?” Isaac asks later when he’s about to leave the room.

“No.” Derek doesn’t look up from the book his reading on his bed.

“Why not?” Isaac inquires. “Is it because of Jennifer? Is she your girlfriend now or something?”

“Or something,” Derek says and stares at the page without being able to read the text.

“What about Stiles?”

“What about him?”

Don’t look up. Don’t look up. Keep reading.

“I thought you liked him.”

“Not anymore,” Derek lies. He aims for uncaring and he thinks he actually pulls it off because Isaac sighs in annoyance before he leaves without saying goodbye.

Derek drops the book he’s been holding so hard his fingers hurt. He picks up his phone, stares at the text from Stiles before he opens a new one.

 _Where’s the party?_ he sends. His phone rings a few minutes later.

“Derek! You decide to leave your lair?” Jennifer screams, voice a bit slurred already. Derek winces and holds the phone a few inches from his ear so he won’t go deaf. “I’ll text you the address.”

It’s in one of those sorority houses. Derek has walked by it a couple of times but he’s never been there. It’s not too far away though. He grabs his jacket and leaves.

The party is loud and he spends most of his time doing shots along with someone called Greenberg. They don’t really talk, except for asking the other if they want another one.

Derek wakes up in a bath tub. He’s not wet and he still got all his clothes. The only thing missing is one of his socks, which is quite weird as he has both shoes on. His head feels close to exploding and his stomach churns. He manages to get out of the tub without throwing up. There’s a person on the floor next to the bathtub – Greenberg, he notices – and Derek cautiously steps over him. He considers washing his face but thinks he might throw up if he had to bend down to the tap so he leaves the bathroom. When he gets out of the bathroom he notices that he’s still in the sorority house, which he’s quite glad about, he would hate to wake up in some unknown part of the town.

The walk back to the dorm is slow and he has to stop once to vomit into a bush. He’s not proud of himself.

He expects his room to be empty and is surprised to see that it isn’t and even more surprised that Erica is the one sitting on his bed.

“How did you get in here?” Derek asks. Erica rolls her eyes and holds up a key.

“Isaac. What’s going on with you, Derek?”

“Nothing.”

“So Jennifer is your Erica 2.0 or what?”

“Yeah,” Derek shrugs. He wants to get into bed and sleep off his hangover, but Erica is sitting on his bed and he can’t just shove her of it, can he? “You know the thing with updates?” Erica looks questioningly at him. “The newer version is always better.”

He knows, the moment the words have left his mouth, that he went too far. Erica’s lips wobble and her eyes tear up as she hurries to get off Derek’s bed. She leaves without another word.

The nausea and headache just got ten times worse and he’s pretty sure it has little to do with the drinking he did the previous night.

 

Derek doesn’t expect anyone else to come by his room that day so of course someone does. Not just someone, but Stiles. He barges in without knocking, startling Derek awake.

“You bastard!” Stiles cries at him. “What the fuck did Erica do to you, huh?”

Derek sits up groggily and squints at Stiles, his brain not really catching up to what’s going on.

“You hurt her. She’s not always been as straight-forward as she is now all her life and you just- I can’t even- You’re an ass, Derek. I’m not- Oh, my god! Why would you even-?”

Stiles tugs at his hair and glares at Derek. Then the fight kind of seems to just run out of him. His shoulders lowers and he drops his hands to his sides.

“You said we’d still be friends,” he says, his voice almost a whisper.

“I’m sorry, Stiles. I- I don’t think I can do that.”

Stiles bites his lips and nods and it’s funny that just before he leaves it looks like it’s _Stiles’_ heart that is breaking, even though Derek’s pretty sure it’s his own.

 

None of his previous friend even talks to Derek after that and Derek gets it, he doesn’t like himself either at the moment. Jennifer, though, tells him that he did the right thing.

“It could never be you and Stiles anyway, Derek. He told you that. He can’t get mad at you for not wanting to be around him all the time. And Erica is a bit of a bitch honestly. You should see the way she looks at me sometimes.”

Derek doesn’t say anything. Erica looks at him, too. Sometimes she glares at him, but that doesn’t hurt as much as when he catches her off guard and she looks like she’s about to cry. He wants to apologize, ask for forgiveness, but Jennifer tells him not to. She says it won’t do any good. Derek assumes she’s right.

He keeps going to stupid frat parties with her, even though she tells him he’s boring and awkward. Greenberg seems nice enough though. They don’t say much to each other, but Derek thinks that Greenberg is probably just as heartbroken as Derek is. Or he’s an alcoholic; he can drink way more than Derek.

Isaac still talks to him, it’s more awkward and he has stopped asking if Derek wants to come along when he’s going to hang out with Scott – and by extension, Stiles. Scott never comes to Isaac’s room anymore. It’s not that Derek was really friends with Scott anyway, he and Isaac were mostly busy with each other whenever they all hung out. Derek doesn’t miss Scott really. He misses all of them, hanging out with a large group of friends, laughing with them and being one of them.

“God, you’re such a girl.” Jennifer rolls her eyes and punches his arm, hard enough to hurt a bit, even if he hasn’t really said anything to her about it. They’re on their way to Derek’s room to watch a movie. They haven’t done things like that, they mostly study in the library or go to parties where Derek gets drunk with Greenberg while Jennifer dances or something. They don’t talk much either, Jennifer only tells Derek to lighten up and stop being such a party-pooper.

“No wonder Stiles doesn’t want you,” she tells him and makes herself comfortable on his bed. “I mean, you’re hot enough, but not much else, is there?”

“I guess not,” Derek says and turns on his laptop. “What do you want to watch?”

Jennifer shoots down Derek’s suggestions and decides on some chick-flick Derek doesn’t even remember the name of. Half-way through the movie Jennifer starts leaning against Derek’s side and he thinks she’s fallen asleep, but when he checks she’s fully awake. Her hand falls down to his thigh and he tenses but she doesn’t seem to notice and she probably doesn’t.

When the movie is over, Derek turns to her to ask if she wants to watch another, but he’s cut off by her lips against his. When he tries to lean back she follows and presses her breasts into his chest. It feels weird and her perfume sticks in his nose. She pushes her tongue into his mouth when he opens it to protest. Her hand creeps up his thigh to try and grab at his crotch and that is what startles him into action. He gets off the bed and stares down at her. She pouts at him, her lipstick a bit smeared in the corner of her mouth.  
“Why did you do that?” he asks.

Jennifer rolls her eyes, as if the answer is obvious. And maybe it is to her.

“Like I said, you’re hot enough,” she shrugs. “It’s not like you have lot of people to choose from, is it?”

“No, but-”

“Come on, Derek. Let’s have some fun. It might get that stick out of your ass.”

Derek stares at her. She sighs and gets up from the bed until she stands close to him, her breasts pressed against his chest as she winds her arms around his neck.

“Don’t be like this, babe. What else are you going to do? Huh? Wait around for Stiles? Face it, lover boy, he doesn’t want you.”

Derek pushes Jennifer mildly, but firmly away and she glares at him, her cute exterior gone.

“I can’t say I blame him,” Jennifer scoffs. “I’ve been trying to get you to lighten up for a freaking month and you won’t even let me have some fun.”

“I want you to go.”

Jennifer sighs loudly, rolls her eyes and grabs her purse from the desk. She fixes the smudge from her lipstick in the mirror next to the wardrobe before she gives Derek an unimpressed glare and leaves.

Derek realizes, when she’s gone, that he’s shaking and that he has a bit trouble breathing. He manages to calm himself down and considers calling Erica, but she probably wouldn’t pick up. She’s on the other side of the campus and it’s too far for him to walk right now. He wonders if Isaac is up in Stiles and Scott’s room and if Stiles is there. He’s out of the door before he realizes that he has decided to go there. He’s still shaking a bit and his heart is beating like mad. He has no idea if Isaac will be there to give the comfort Derek needs or if Stiles is there. Derek doesn’t know what to do if Stiles is there. He just know that he wants his friends and he’s terrified he’s screwed up so much that they’ll never forgive him. The thought of never talking to Stiles again is suddenly very real and very frightening.

 

Stiles and Scott’s room turns out to be empty. Derek even tries the door handle, but it’s locked. He quickly makes up his mind and sets off across campus. He only hesitates for a brief moment before he knocks on the door to Erica’s dorm room. He can hear muffled voices before the door opens. Erica stares at him. For a moment there’s surprise in her brown eyes but then she schools her features to glare at him as she crosses her arms over her chest. In the room behind her a dark boy is sitting on her bed. Derek recognizes him as Boyd, a quarterback on the school’s football team and the very same Erica’s been watching since day one.

“What are you doing here?” Erica demands.

Boyd seems a bit confused as he looks between Erica and Derek.

“I’m sorry,” Derek says and wrings his hands.

“You should be,” Erica tells him and Derek winces even though he knows he deserves it.

“I’m sorry for what I said and for letting Jennifer-” he swallows hard “- manipulate me.”

“So you caught up, did you?”

Derek takes a deep breath, tries to steady himself and nods. Erica’s anger seems to falter slightly.

“What happened?” she asks after a moment’s hesitation.

Derek has no idea how to explain what happened. He feels used and sad and so, _so_ damn stupid. Maybe Erica sees something in his expression or maybe she just can read him that well. She sighs as she lets her hands fall to her sides and after another moment’s hesitation she winds her arms around his neck and brings him into a tight hug. Derek can feel the energy leaving him as he sags against her, leaning his head against her shoulder even though she’s a head shorter than he is.

“I’m so sorry,” he whispers and Erica hums consolingly.

“I’ll just- I’ll come back later?” Erica shifts to look at Boyd and Derek feels her nod and he hears Boyd leaving.

“I’m sorry for- I didn’t mean to interrupt anything.”

“Don’t be stupid,” Erica says and herds him into the room and shoves him to sit on the bed. “Now tell me everything.”

So Derek does. He tells Erica how Jennifer had been nice at first, seeming smart and that she convinced him not to have any contact with Erica or the rest. He tells Erica about Jennifer forcing herself on him and Erica’s eyes grow dark even though Derek says that Jennifer only kissed him and that he’s okay.

They sit silent afterwards and Derek feels more at ease than he’s felt for a month. Erica hugs him to her side and pets his hair and Derek wonders how he could try to replace Erica.

“I’m sorry for what I said,” Derek says. “Stiles came to my room afterwards. He was livid.”

“He’s a good friend.”

“Yeah, he is.”

“Why didn’t you go out with him more when you had the chance?”

“He didn’t want that,” Derek says. “I thought you got that.”

“What? He said _you_ rejected _him._ ”

“What? Why would I reject him?”

“Because you’re gone on your prince charming?” Erica states as a matter-of-factly.

“ _He’s_ my prince charming!” Derek winces and Erica laughs. “Please, don’t ever tell _anyone_ , especially not Stiles, that I said that.”

Erica gives him a smirk – he’s totally going to hear that one till the day he dies.

“Why did you reject him then?”

“He rejected me,” Derek repeats slowly. “He said we could still be friends and I thought-”

“God, you two are so stupid,” Erica sighs, but she sounds quite fond. “You should just talk to him about it. And no half-assed talking, like the talking you’ve obviously done earlier. Real talk about emotions and stuff.”

“I don’t like to talk about emotions,” Derek says and Erica pats his hand.

“I know, sweetie, but you’ll manage. My guess is you’ll just have to say hi and he’ll do the rest of the talking.”

Derek smiled slightly at the thought of Stiles and Erica makes a puking sound.

“God, how could I miss this earlier?”

Derek turns his head to hide his grin in his shoulder.

 

Derek isn’t sure if he’s ever been this nervous in his entire life. Erica helped him pick out clothes this morning and if it wasn’t for her he probably would still be in bed, but Erica forced him into the shower and to shave and dress nicely in a grey Henley and the tightest jeans she could find – a black pair Derek’s sister bought him mostly for a laugh and Derek’s not sure if he’s ever used them before. He might not be able to reproduce after wearing them, but if Erica’s right Stiles will agree to date Derek and then they’ll adopt or something, so it doesn’t really bother him. Except that the pants are awfully tight in the crotch area and there are people in the corridor so Derek can’t really adjust himself without looking like a total creep.

He’s so nervous that he doesn’t see the girl hurrying in the opposite direction from him in the corridor and they bump into each other in a frontal crash, her papers getting scattered all over the floor and Derek saves the girl herself from falling over by catching her arm.

“Sorry,” he says and lets go when she seems to steady herself. “I wasn’t looking where I was going.”

“Obviously,” the girl rolls her eyes and Derek quickly helps her to collect the papers from the floor before she hurries away with a slightly terrified backward glance.

Because of his run in with the girl he forgets which floor he’s on – they all look the same really – and just opens the door to what he for a moment believes is his own dorm room. He stops just inside, hand still on the handle to realize that this is not his room. On the bed, the one with Spiderman sheets – Stiles’ bed – is a blonde girl and Stiles. The have both stopped what they were doing – some quite heavy making out, by the looks of it – and are both staring at Derek. Stiles is lying half on top of the girl and her hands are fisted in his shirt, exposing quite a lot of his muscled back and stomach. Derek’s insides twitch and he wants to look away, he really does, but he can’t. He just keeps staring at them.

“Derek?” Stiles stares back at him, but doesn’t move until the girl pushes at his chest. He scrambles off her and stares at Derek some more.

“I’m sorry,” Derek says, “I didn’t know- I thought- I- I’ll see myself out.”

Derek turns to leave, but Stiles’ voice stops him.

“Wait! You thought what?”

“I thought you liked me.”

Stiles makes a frustrated noise – no, a furious noise – and then someone grabs Derek’s arm to keep him from leaving.

“You _do not_ get to walk in here and look at me like that! You can’t just throw in my face that I like you. I’ve tried getting over you and I’ll make no excuses if my tries involve other persons, okay? You do not get to be sad because I’m not moping around alone. You can’t just-”

“I’ll see myself out,” the girl says with a slight bemused tone, but neither Derek nor Stiles give her even a glance. Stiles’ grip on Derek’s arm is almost painful and Stiles is so close. Derek tries to get away from him, just a step back to put some distance between them, but Stiles closes the distance again. They’re almost the same height and Stiles’ eyes are dark brown in his anger.

“So you’re over me?” Derek asks even though he doesn’t want to hear the answer. He doesn’t want to know that Stiles is over him, that he had the chance but blew it.

“Oh, my god! Did you just come here to hear me say it, huh? I’m totally gone on you, man. You’ve been rude and mean to me and my friends but I still fucking love you and-”

Stiles’ eyes narrow as he shoves at Derek but Derek can’t keep the smile from his face – Stiles loves him. Stiles is angry, Derek gets that, but he’s also so beautiful and alive and Derek wants to tell him this. He has no idea how though.

“What the fuck are you smiling about? You can’t just- hmpf.”

Derek kisses Stiles without a single warning. Stiles flails a bit and then relaxes when Derek’s hand slides against his cheek. Derek eases the pressure on Stiles’ lips and angles his head. Stiles makes a noise in his throat and his hands fist into Derek’s collar. Derek licks at Stiles’ lips and Stiles immediately opens his own mouth and Stiles’ tongue is against Derek’s and Derek kind of forgets his own name at that moment. Stiles suddenly breaks away and when Derek tries to chase after his mouth Stiles puts a hand on his chest to stop him.

“What- what are we doing?”

“We’re kissing.”

“Not the right time to develop a sense of humor, dude. Are you- why are you kissing me?”

Derek sighs and rubs at his neck awkwardly. With the kissing he had kind of hoped that they could forgo the talking and just continue making out – Derek kind of likes that prospect a lot.

“I like you, Stiles.”

“But…?”

“No buts.”

Stiles frowns, “Then where’s the catch?”

“There is no catch.”

Stiles untangles himself from Derek and he’s still frowning. Derek doesn’t know where to put his hand so he puts them in the pockets of his jeans even if they’re almost too tight for his hands to fit.

“Why did you reject me?”

“Are we playing twenty questions?”

Stiles glares at Derek and this was not how this was supposed to go. They were supposed to admit their love for each other and continue making out. It began so well…

“I- I thought you rejected me.” Derek doesn’t dare to look at Stiles so he stares out the window even if the only thing he can see is the blue sky and some grey clouds. “When you said we could be friends, I thought this was your way of telling me you weren’t, you know, interested.”

“But I was!” Stiles exclaims and waves his hands. “I mean, I am, but you- You and Jennifer-”

“She was only a friend,” Derek says. “Barely that. I’m sorry for- well, for everything.”

“You better be, because you were an ass.”

“I know.”

“I still kinda like you though.” Derek can’t help but smile at Stiles’ almost shy admission. Stiles smiles back and then his once fond smile turns cocky. “So wanna go back to making out?”

“Thought you’d never ask,” Derek replies and aims for sounding dry but probably misses by miles as Stiles almost lunges himself at Derek. Their lips find each other instantly and Stiles pushes Derek until the back of his knees hit a bed – Scott’s bed, he notices subconsciously but doesn’t particularly care. Stiles smirks and pushes him onto his back.

“You want any help getting out of those tight pants?” Stiles waggles his eyebrows and Derek huffs on a laugh as he pulls Stiles down on top of him and then proceeds to wipe that smirk off Stiles’ face. With his tongue.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: there's some emotional manipulation; Derek acting like a dick because of said manipulation; Jennifer forces hersef onto Derek and kisses him, but Derek quite quickly pushes her away; Stiles makes out with Malia and Heather (not at the same time though) but it's brief and not much described.  
> Let me know if there's something else you want me to tag or warn about. 
> 
> Come say hi on [Tumblr.](http://hepzheba.tumblr.com)


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